The Government approved new trade policy for Finland
Press release 271/2005
8 September, 2005
The Government approved the new Finnish trade policy in its general meeting on 8 September. It is the first full presentation of changes in the trade political operations environment and their influence on Finland’s trade political agenda.
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Mari Kiviniemi considers the approved policy as an important national basic document: "Trade policy is playing a more important role than before in securing Finnish work, livelihood, and welfare."
Trade policy is a way of strengthening Finnish competitiveness by means of affecting the operations environment of Finnish companies abroad, and securing the ease of importation. The operations environment of companies has changed as a result of globalisation, and it keeps on changing. One of the central trade political consequences of this development has been that the factors related to the internal legislation and administration of states having an effect on trade and investments have become an integral part of trade political agenda.
Finland regards it as important that the EU continue its common trade policy which is in line with Finland’s traditional policy aiming at elimination of obstacles to trade and investments. As a result of EU membership, the EU internal trade is no longer handled as a matter of trade policy, and in external trade issues, the EU countries follow the common trade policy of the Union. However, Finland still continues to define its own trade political goals.
The multi-partite trade system based on the World Trade Organisation, WTO, is still important for Finland. However, as different regional and international free trade arrangements are rapidly spreading, even the EU has to secure for itself strong positions in its trade relations.
Important market areas for Finland outside the EU include particularly Russia, the United States, China, India and Brazil, as well as certain other emerging markets in the developing countries. Thus it is extremely important for Finland to eliminate obstacles of trade and investments in these areas. Even though, particularly in the developing countries, customs tariffs are still often a significant obstacle of trade, the obstacles to services trade, and protection of immaterial property will be the most central areas of operation in the future trade policy of Finland.
Development questions are more and more important part of the trade policy. In trade policy, we cannot demand full reciprocity from developing countries, and we have to support the weakest among them by special measures. Finland considers it important that special treatment given to developing countries aims at fully integrating them into the world trade, and the world trade system in due course. The measures executed for the developing countries in different areas of political life should all be compatible with each other and directed towards the same end.
Additional information: Director General Antti Kuosmanen, Department for External Trade Relations, tel. +358 9 1605 5042, +358 400 477 269, [email protected], and Press Attaché Jari Haapiainen, tel. +350 9 1605 5356, [email protected],